Scaling the wall was curiously like being back at the scholam progenium, going through one of the endless rounds of assault courses. Cape flapping and boots clicking on the ceramite wall she went up and over in a few quick pulls, vaulting down to land beside Connors in a three point landing which kept her hand free for her bolt pistol.

"Alright, follow me," she directed and stood up, walking through the forest towards the main house without apparent concern. It took almost a quater hour but they emerged onto a broad terrace of ornamental gardens which fronted the palace. A large vaulted door of ceramite and amorcrys looked out over the garden and servitors, their hands replaced with gardening tools and their faces masks which seemed to be faces made of leaves went about the business of tending the plants.

"Halt!" a palace guardsman declared. He wore a polished cuirass of bronze and a black on gold check pattern. A gold chased but functional looking las gun pointed at them.

"I am Commissar Petrovska of the 112th Gudrin," she declared as though showing up on the palace lawn in the middle of the night were completely normal.

"The Governor wants to see me," she declared. The guard hesitated, reaching for a vox bead. Katiya stalked up the steps towards the house, ignoring the threat of the rifle. The guard's face twisted with consternation.

"You need to wait till I..." he began but Katiya was already pressing passed and into the house. The interior of the palace was decorated with the splendid oppulence one came to expect of the Imperial Nobillity. Even as a Commissar Katiya didn't move in those circles, though she had been to her share of banquets on shipboard. The palace itself was vast and there was little chance of her finding the governor unaided. She solved the problem by simply ceasing the first servant she came across. Ignoring the increasingly frantic protests of the house guard. By now she had already come too far to shoot and by default he became part of her escort.

They found the Governor, awake as Katiya had predicted, and in a large office space which had been fitted out with a series of flickering holoprojectors. All of them showed feeds of the confrontation at the school. Dug in Gudranites facing the torch wielding mob. Some of the screens had the greenish hue of light enhancement though there was enough light from fires and torches to see the stream of hurled bottles and stones that lashed the unyielding guard position. Robed tech-adepts moved between the projectors, making adjustments with their mechadendrites or chanting rituals of focus in scratchy mechanical voices. The governor herself was dressed in a black body glove with a broad sash of cloth of gold. She moved amid the displays with a purpose, talking softly to the vox operators and technicians. She looked fit and healthy for someone in her position, and had an obvious energy about her.

"Commissar...Petrovska is it?" she asked when Katiya stepped into the room, the hint in dreging up Katiya's name impressively short.

"And Corpral Connors!" she exclaimed, sounding delighted, "come to arrest any more of my household?" Her voice was mischiveous. The obvious lack of concern caused the guards to relax and then bow and withdraw.

"We were just discussing why the Imperial Guard haven't opened fire on this... rabble," she went on, voice dripping with distaste as she gestured to the holos. A heavyset man in an uniform that seemed to be mostly composed of gold lace pushed himself to his feet with an audible huff. He had huge drooping mustaches and innumerable chins.

"Cowards," the man huffed, fixing Katiya was a baleful stare. The commissar eyed him for a moment in a deliberately netural way and then turned to the governor.

"They aren't firing, because I ordered them not to," she expalined. In truth it was remarkable that the troops were still holding fire. Perhaps the junior officers were just too nervous of crossing a Commissar's direct orders. More seasoned veterans might have taken their chances.

"Well thank goodness someone has the brains the Emperor gave a grox," the Governor replied with a touch of acid.

"Commissar, Corporal, this is General Hetad, the head of the Palace Guard," she said. Katiya noticed it wasn't 'my' palace guard and recalled from the briefing slate that the noble families insisted on involving themselves in such matters so that the Governor couldn't use the Guard as her own personal army. Clearly there was little love lost here.

"We should sweep these rabble away," he snapped, "If the Imperial Guard is as good as they say, it should be a simple matter."

"And then what?" the Governor asked, her voice tired as though she had argued this point too many times to count.

"Half the city will burn down and the rest of the planet might well rise in rebellion as soon as picts of imperial troops killing unarmed civilians get out."